Fall is in full swing and these apple pie cookies are calling your name! These cookies have a soft base and are topped with fresh cinnamon apples and brown butter maple cream cheese frosting.
These cookies are part of my series called “cookies inspired by tv shows and movies,” and they’re for Supernatural! I’ve actually never seen Supernatural, but I’ve had so many requests to make a cookie for the show and the one thing everyone tells me is that Dean (one of the main characters) LOVES pie. And his favorite pie is apple pie. So here we are with an apple pie cookie for Dean from Supernatural.
If you follow my series then you’ll remember a while ago I posted an apple crisp cookie for Once Upon a Time. That cookie is filled with cinnamon apples and topped with a streusel and maple icing. It is one of my favorite cookies ever. This one obviously has similar flavors, since they are both apple based, but they differ in a few important ways, the most important being the frosting. The apple crisp cookies have a maple icing and these cookies have a brown butter maple cream cheese frosting that is SO GOOD. I could just eat it plain. It is nutty because of the brown butter and is smooth thanks to the cream cheese. I am seriously addicted to this frosting and want to eat it on everything!
what is in these apple pie cookies?
cookies:
- butter
- white sugar
- brown sugar
- eggs
- greek yogurt
- vanilla
- flour
- cornstarch
- baking soda
- salt
filling:
- apples
- cinnamon
brown butter maple cream cheese frosting:
- butter
- cream cheese
- maple syrup
- powdered sugar
- vanilla
This seems like a long list of ingredients, but they are all very common ingredients! You probably already have most of them on hand, and these cookies come together quicker than you’d think.
tips to make the perfect apple pie cookies
- To get the “apple pie” look achieved with the frosting, it’s best to use a piping bag and a flat tip. The only flat tip I have has ridges on one side, but I just flipped it over so the smooth side was on top and it worked perfectly. So, make do with what you have, but a flat tip is the best!
- Since these cookies have fresh apples on top, they are best enjoyed within the first two days! Much longer than that and the juice in the apples will start to seep out and make the cookies soggy. So just enjoy them fresh!
- The frosting is a cream cheese based frosting, so these cookies should be kept in the fridge.
other cookies from this series:
- Ginny and Georgia chilled peach pie cookies
- Gilmore Girls coffee cake cookies
- Once Upon a Time apple crisp cookies
- New Girl shortbread cookies
apple pie cookies
ingredients
cookie base
- 1 cup butter cold and cubed
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp greek yogurt / sour cream
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 1/2 cups flour
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
cinnamon apples
- 2 red apples peeled and chopped
- 1 tsp cinnamon
brown butter maple cream cheese frosting
- 1/2 cup butter
- 8 oz cream cheese at room temp
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla
instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350. Add cold, cubed butter to a large bowl or stand mixer. Add white and brown sugar and mix for 2-3 minutes, until butter is fully incorporated.
- Add eggs, greek yogurt, and vanilla and mix until just combined.
- Add flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Mix until just combined.
- Using a large cookie scoop (about 1/4 cup), scoop out the dough onto a lined or greased cookie sheet. Using the back of the cookie scoop or a spoon, make a small crater on the top of each cookie — this is where the apples will go.
- Peel the apples and chop them into small pieces. Toss the apples with the cinnamon until they're well coated.
- Use a spoon to scoop about 1 tbsp of the cinnamon apples into the crater on each cookie. The apples shouldn't overflow off the cookie, but should be as full as you can get them.
- Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, until they're just set. They may look slightly undercooked in the center underneath the apples, but this is because of the apple juices. If the edges look set, they're done. Let them cool on the pan for at least 5 minutes then transfer them to a cooling rack.
- While the cookies cool, make the frosting. To brown the butter add it to a small pot over medium heat. Stir the butter continuously as it melts. It will begin to bubble, then after a couple minutes it will start to foam up. When the foam goes down, you should be left with brown, nutty smelling butter. This should take 4-7 minutes.
- Once the butter is browned, take it off the heat and pour it into a bowl. Transfer the bowl to the freezer for 10 minutes so the butter isn't so hot.
- Add the cooled brown butter to a large bowl with the cream cheese. Mix for 2 minutes. Add the powdered sugar, maple syrup, and vanilla. Mix another 2 minutes. The frosting will smell incredible and taste even better!
- Transfer the frosting to a piping bag with a flat tip. Pipe the frosting onto each cookie, three horizontal stripes and three vertical stripes. Enjoy!
- Since these cookies have fresh apples on them, they are best enjoyed within 1-2 days of baking them. After that the juice from the apples starts to make the cookies soggy.
Love the recipe!!! I was wondering how to store these cookies and how long they stay fresh?
Hey! Since the frosting has cream cheese it is best to keep these cookies in the fridge. Additionally, since the cookies have fresh apples on top, these cookies are best enjoyed in the first 1-2 days! Much longer than that and the juices from the fresh apples start to make the cookies a bit soggy. I hope you enjoy them!
So glad I made these super tasty cookies! They expanded a lot when they baked so they don’t look quite right but the flavor is definitely spot on! I assume I mixed them too much or something because they were also really sticky when I put them on the pan.
Any suggestions for a better looking cookie is appreciated!
Yay! I’m so glad the flavor was spot on. As for the cookies expanding, if your dough was very sticky you likely needed a little more flour. Next time add 1 tbsp of flour at a time until the dough is no longer really sticky. That should help them to not expand as much!
Hi! I was just wondering if leaving out the yogurt/sour cream would affect the result? I don’t have either on hand 🙁 Also, do you know if baking it on a silpat yields a different result than baking on parchment paper? Thanks!
Hey! Not a huge deal to leave out the yogurt/sour cream. It just helps with the softness of the cookie, but should be ok without. And baking on a silpat works just fine! Excited for you to try these!
Hi! If I don’t have a cookie scoop, is 1/4 measuring cup alright?
Hi! Yes, that works totally fine!
I was not pleased with the results from these cookies. Following the recipe instructions, I pulled them out when the edges looked done but the center still looked underdone, and the results were a VERY underdone center that was kind of gummy (and that was with adding a few minutes to the bake time). They tasted more like a sugar cookie than anything else, the brown butter was overpowering in the frosting (I could see only browning half the butter in the future) and the frosting was not it for me. Nobody in my house who tried these said it tasted like apple pie, and this was the weakest of the three cookie recipes i made (although the other two were great!)
i’m so sorry these cookies didn’t work. that is such a bummer. i’m not sure why they didn’t bake well and tasted off. but glad you’ve enjoyed other cookie recipes!
I made these cookies for my high school choir class as a birthday treat and they were gone in two min! And I doubled the recipe! They hit off so well that I got a couple orders for these. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I’ll be making these much more in the future!
Yay that makes me so happy!! I’m so glad everyone loved them! And I hope you had a great birthday! 🙂
I’m obsessed with this recipe!! I wanted to bake my partner some apple pie cookies for valentines day and I made these with two adjustments – I cooked the apples down slightly with butter, lemon, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, brown sugar, and molasses. I only cooked them about halfway so that some of the liquid was released, but still had some texture to them. I strained them before topping and this really seemed to help the liquid problem.
I also topped them with the streusel from the once-upon-a-time cookies. They turned out better than I hoped, he loved them. the frosting really is to die for!! thanks 🙂
hi! YAY i’m so glad you enjoyed these! the cooked down apples sound amazing and love that you paired it with the streusel!